


Thirty-Six Hours

by rsadelle



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Pandemics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-03
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2017-11-13 12:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/503495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And, yeah, that's The Virus. The one that has a name that no one uses. The one that kills you or Changes you. The one that hasn't become a point of contention in the CBA negotiations only because no one's quite sure what to do about the Changed yet. The one that has a three-day incubation period, so you can pass it on without even knowing you're sick. Three-day incubation period.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirty-Six Hours

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "virus."
> 
> I chose to differentiate between Tylers by referring to Seguin as Tyler and Brown as Ty.

Tyler has more than learned his lesson about walking into bedrooms unannounced, so he knocks on Ty's door instead of opening it. "Dude, you've gotta get up if you want breakfast before we leave."

"I'm not going."

"What do you mean you're not going?" Tyler has the doorknob halfway turned when Ty yells at him again.

"Don't come in here!"

"Are you jerking it? It's not like I've never seen that." Tyler pauses anyway.

"I'm sick," Ty says. His voice drops so low Tyler can barely hear it through the door. "The Virus."

Tyler lets the doorknob go and leans his forehead on the door. "Are you sure? You could just have a cold."

"My fingernails are blue."

And, yeah, that's The Virus. The one that has a name that no one uses. The one that kills you or Changes you. The one that hasn't become a point of contention in the CBA negotiations only because no one's quite sure what to do about the Changed yet. The one that has a three-day incubation period, so you can pass it on without even knowing you're sick. Three-day incubation period.

Tyler opens the door.

"Dude!" Ty looks like shit, but he has it together enough to yell at Tyler. "Don't come in here. I don't want you getting sick too."

"Three days ago," Tyler says without coming all the way into the room. "The girl who blew us both on the couch."

Ty closes his eyes. "Fuck."

"Yeah." Tyler closes the door behind him and lies down on his back next to Ty. He's the one who found the girl; this is as much his fault as anyone else's.

Ty curls up against him, his face against Tyler's neck. "I don't want to die."

"You're not going to die."

"Thirty percent of people die."

Tyler grabs Ty's hand and holds on. "Seventy percent live." He looks down at their hands, and there's the blue tinge to his fingernails too, even though he thinks the sick feeling in his stomach is still just dread and not The Virus.

"I don't want to die," Ty says again. "I want to make the Flyers and win the Cup. I want to watch Marshall grow up and go to your sisters' weddings. I want to marry you for real."

Tyler sucks in a breath. "Ty-"

"I would. I want to."

Tyler turns on his side, so he's looking right at Ty. "We're not going to die," he says. "And I'll marry you for real."

*

The conversation with his parents and sisters is the worst one out of all the calls Tyler has to make: them, Jesse, the trainer, Marshy, building management, arrangements to have the place cleaned no matter what happens.

The calls take long enough that they're both shivering and sick by the time he's done.

Tyler rests his head on Ty's shoulder, gathering his strength. "Shower," he says. "We'll feel better." Because there's nothing to be done once you have The Virus but try to make it through.

They shower together, leaning on each other under the hot water, not doing anything but letting the water wash away their sick sweat and the heat ease their muscles. They dry off and Tyler lets Ty collapse back into bed while goes out to the kitchen to get them some juice, bottles of Gatorade, some water. He feeds Marshall while he's out there - The Virus can't cross the species barrier, they say, so at least he's safe - and leaves the door to Ty's room open for him when he goes back to bed.

"Here, drink this." Tyler pushes a bottle of Gatorade into Ty's hand. "And take some of these." He already has the Advil open.

"They're not going to make me better."

"They'll make you feel better." Tyler spreads Ty's fingers open, holds his hand flat, and pours a couple of Advil into his hand. "Take them." When Ty just stares at the pills in his hand, Tyler pushes his hand up toward his mouth. "Take them. You're not going to die because you get so miserable you give up."

Ty takes them and drinks most of his Gatorade. "I'm not going to give up."

"You better not." Tyler drinks most of a bottle of juice, then has to lie down because he's getting dizzy. "I'm not going to be a widow before I can legally buy alcohol in the U.S."

Ty half laughs, and he wraps his arms around Tyler. "I'm not giving up."

*

They sweat their way through it, sleep for long stretches when they can, pet Marshall when he whines and doesn't understand why they aren't getting up to play with him. Twelve hours, twenty-four when they wake up in the morning and stumble into another shower that just exhausts them enough to send them straight back to bed, and finally thirty-six. Thirty-six hours, they're still alive, and Ty stumbles to the kitchen to bring them back something more substantial than juice and Gatorade.

They sit up in Ty's bed, string cheese and crackers surrounding them, more Gatorade, scruff on both their faces because there wasn't any point in shaving before.

"We're Changed," Ty says.

"Yeah." Changed, and it could be a week, two, a month before they know what that means for them. It doesn't always happen the same way. "You sure you still want to marry me?"

"Yes," Ty says immediately, instantly, like he didn't even have to think about it. "You sure you still want to marry me?"

"Yes." Tyler answers just as fast as Ty did. "Probably next summer."

Ty makes a face. "That's so far away."

Tyler shrugs. "My mom and sisters are going to want a wedding." He pushes a box of crackers out of the way so he can lie down. He's still tired. "Could be earlier if there's a lockout."

Ty moves all of the crackers and cheese to the nightstand, where Marshall can't get at them, and lies down next to Tyler. "Could be the only good thing about a lockout." He looks down at his phone, winces, and says, "You should turn on your phone."

Tyler winces right along with him, but picks up his phone. There are so many texts and missed calls he doesn't even bother scrolling through all of them. He sends, _Still alive,_ to most of the people he knows, and, _Marrying Ty. Fall wedding if there's a lockout,_ to his family, and calls it good.


End file.
